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news.A new study has pinpointed a natural ingredient of human blood that effectively blocks HIV, suggesting that a new class of drugs could be developed to fight the disease.
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The virus blocker may lead to new HIV treatments because it has a different mechanism of action. The research team found that fragments of a relatively abundant blood molecule, called virus-inhibitory peptide, or VIRIP, acts as a broad-based inhibitor of HIV-1.
“The findings reveal a new target for inhibiting HIV that remains fully active against viral strains that are resistant to other drugs,” said study author Frank Kirchhoff of the University of Ulm in Germany.
The researchers also provided evidence that HIV-1 does not easily develop resistance to VIRIP. Furthermore, they found preliminary evidence showing that some derivatives of the peptide are highly stable in human blood plasma and are nontoxic even at exceedingly high concentrations.
In the study, the researchers sifted through a comprehensive library of small peptides and focused on one that blocked HIV without toxic effects on cells. Further examination revealed VIRIP as the active ingredient. A synthetic version of the peptide maintained its anti-HIV activity, excluding the possibility that some other factor was responsible.
They showed that VIRIP plays an essential role in the ability of HIV to fuse with and infect its host’s immune cells. That unique underlying mechanism allowed the inhibitor to remain effective against viral strains that are resistant to other antiretroviral drugs.
The researchers said that many drug classes are needed because multi-drug resistant viruses are starting to show up more and more.